Tuesday newspaper round-up: Apple, Starwood, pensions, HMRC

The FBI has abandoned its attempt to force Apple to help it break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, after it found another way to access the device’s contents without the company’s help. The move ends a high-stakes stand-off between the iPhone maker and the US government but leaves unresolved the wider issue of how far tech companies should be required to modify their products to aid law enforcement. In their respective statements, the Department of Justice left open the door to future legal clashes with Silicon Valley over encryption and data security, while Apple said it would continue to strengthen the protections built into its devices. – Financial Times

Anbang has fired a new shot in the fiercest bidding war dealmakers have seen in recent years, after the Chinese insurer raised its bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts to $14bn in its latest effort to trump a rival offer from Marriott International. Starwood said on Monday that it was in talks with Anbang after the acquisitive Chinese insurer sweetened its all-cash offer to $82.75 per share, a non-binding proposal the US hotel operator said it was likely to consider superior to Marriott’s offer. – Financial Times

A “perfect storm” of fears over the state of the world economy, Britain’s place in the EU, and market volatility is gathering over Britain’s dominant financial services sector, according to a new survey. Banks and investment firms have reported the sharpest deterioration in their outlook in over four years in a survey of 104 firms carried out by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and accountants PwC. – Telegraph

Savers have withdrawn almost £6bn from their retirement funds after the introduction of pension reforms last year. New industry figures show that just over 213,000 cash lump sum payments totalling £3bn were made to over-55s since the changes were implemented on 6 April. On top of that, pension firms paid out £2.9bn in the form of regular sums to provide an income, said the Association of British Insurers. – Guardian

UK union leaders have held talks in India ahead of a crucial board meeting of steel giant Tata which could decide the fate of thousands of workers. Officials from the Community union had “constructive” talks with senior company representatives in Mumbai, where the board meets on Tuesday. – GuardianConocoPhillips is drawing up plans to shut down one of the North Sea’s biggest gas pipeline systems in a move that threatens to knock out 10 per cent of the UK’s gas capacity and a string of active fields. The US company is locked in talks with the industry regulator about the future of the Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System, one of 15 big gas networks in the UK section of the North Sea. – The Times

A multimillion-pound Revenue & Customs publicity campaign to stamp out tax evasion and avoidance used an advertising agency ultimately controlled in an offshore haven. HMRC spent more than £6 million on the campaigns, including £300,000 specifically on offshore evasion. – The Times